A politically weakened President Bush declared Tuesday night that America must break its long dependence on Mideast oil and rebuked critics of his stay-the-course strategy for the unpopular war in Iraq. “America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world,” Bush said as he sought to drive the election-year agenda in his annual State of the Union address. “By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.” Rejecting calls for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Bush said, “There is no peace in retreat.” He also slapped at those who complain he took the country to war on the erroneous grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. “Hindsight alone is not wisdom,” Bush said. “And second-guessing is not a strategy.” ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

The Bush administration is considering asking Congress later this year for at least $2 billion in new reconstruction money, primarily for maintaining completed Iraqi facilities. Administration officials say the additional funding is needed to prevent completed projects in Iraq from falling into disrepair while the new government tries to establish a steady flow of revenue from oil and other sources to sustain the nation's infrastructure. The money would come in an Iraqi emergency, or supplemental, appropriations bill that also would finance military operations, which cost about $6 billion a month. Congress attached an extra $50 billion to this year's Pentagon spending bill for that purpose, but officials say additional money likely will be needed. An administration official declined to comment. Congress already has approved $24 billion for Iraq reconstruction, and some speculated that the White House would not ask for more. ...http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060130-113747-9568r.htm

A new poll found that nearly half of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and most favor setting a timetable for American troops to leave. The poll also found that 80 percent of Iraqis think the United States plans to maintain permanent bases in the country even if the newly elected Iraqi government asks American forces to leave. Researchers found a link between support for attacks and the belief among Iraqis that the United States intends to keep a permanent military presence in the country. At the same time, the poll found that many Iraqis think that some outside military forces are required to keep Iraq stable until the new government can field adequate security forces on its own. Only 39 percent of Iraqis surveyed thought that Iraqi police and army forces were strong enough to deal with the security challenges on their own, ...http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13750080.htm

Guys, watch out the next time anger threatens to overtake common sense. You could wind up in the hospital. That's the conclusion of a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher who found that anger increased the risk of injury, especially for men, after interviewing more than 2,400 emergency-room patients at three Missouri hospitals. The study, published Tuesday in the Annals of Family Medicine journal, found that people who described themselves as feeling "hostile" before getting hurt faced twice the risk of injury. And compared to women, men were more likely to injure themselves when angry. "When we men start to get angry, maybe we need to take a step back," said Dan Vinson, a professor of family and community medicine and the study's primary author....http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1562670

Two federal appeals courts on opposite sides of the country declared the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Tuesday, saying the measure lacks an exception for cases in which a woman's health is at stake. The first ruling came from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hours later, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a similar decision in a 2-1 ruling. The New York decision affirmed a 2004 ruling by a judge who upheld the right to perform the procedure even as he described the procedure as "gruesome, brutal, barbaric and uncivilized." Tuesday's ruling was marked by an unusually sharp dissent by Judge Chester Straub, who said he believed Congress' determination that the procedure was never medically necessary to protect a women's health was well founded and supported by a lower court ruling. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-01-31-abortion-challenge_x.htm?csp=34

A judge approved a settlement of up to $85 million Tuesday between sexual abuse victims and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, one of the largest deals the church has reached with U.S. parishioners who were molested by clergy. The settlement covers 361 victims who claim they were abused over a period of 50 years by priests in a diocese that once included 57 counties across a large swath of Kentucky. Special Judge John Potter said a desire by the Covington Diocese to make reparations to the victims contributed to the settlement. "Contrary to what might be the case in other dioceses, the court believes that this professed desire is genuine and played a significant role in the diocese's decision," Potter wrote in his 15-page ruling. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/31/national/main1263743.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1263743